National Fish & Wildlife Forensic Lab, 1490 E. Main St, Ashland, OR 97520, USA.
Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2012 Dec 15;26(23):2649-56. doi: 10.1002/rcm.6388.
Agarwood is the resinous material harvested from threatened Aquilaria species. We investigated how many protonated 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone ions were sufficient to make an accurate identification of agarwood. Analysis of 125 reference samples was carried out by direct analysis in real time time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART-TOFMS). The identification criteria developed were applied to commercial samples.
We developed a technique that uses DART-TOFMS to detect 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones. Additionally, we developed a set of criteria to infer the presence of Aquilaria in commercial samples of wood chips, sawdust, incense and liquids. Additionally, we examined other fragrant woods to determine if they contained a chemical profile that could be falsely identified as agarwood.
Analysis of reference and commercial samples (n = 151) established that DART-TOFMS provides reproducible mass spectra that are useful for inferring the genus of suspected agarwood samples. We identified 17 ions which were useful for authenticating agarwood. Comparison of the number of chromone ions detected by direct analyses of dry wood chips versus eluent analysis of methanol-extracted wood showed that results were similar. Lastly, analysis of 25 scented woods of other species did not give false positive results.
Reliable criteria for inferring agarwood include the presence of diagnostic ions, m/z 319.118 or 349.129, in addition to ten or more ions characteristic of 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones. Wood anatomists challenged with difficult morphological identifications can use this tool to assist in their analyses. Published 2012. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
沉香是从受威胁的沉香属物种中收获的树脂材料。我们研究了需要多少质子化的 2-(2-苯乙基)色酮离子才能对沉香进行准确鉴定。通过实时飞行时间质谱直接分析（DART-TOFMS）对 125 个参考样品进行了分析。开发的鉴定标准应用于商业样品。
我们开发了一种使用 DART-TOFMS 检测 2-(2-苯乙基)色酮的技术。此外，我们制定了一套标准，以推断商业木屑、锯末、香和液体样品中是否存在沉香。此外，我们还检查了其他芳香木材，以确定它们是否含有可能被错误鉴定为沉香的化学特征。
对参考和商业样品（n=151）的分析表明，DART-TOFMS 提供了可重复的质谱，可用于推断可疑沉香样品的属。我们确定了 17 个离子，这些离子可用于鉴定沉香。与直接分析干木屑与甲醇提取木屑的洗脱液分析相比，检测到的色酮离子数量相似。最后，对 25 种其他树种的芳香木材进行分析未得出假阳性结果。
推断沉香的可靠标准包括存在特征离子 m/z 319.118 或 349.129 以及十个或更多特征为 2-(2-苯乙基)色酮的离子。具有困难形态学鉴定的木材解剖学家可以使用此工具协助他们进行分析。2012 年出版。本文是美国政府的工作，在美国属于公有领域。
